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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29804421">Summoning the devil tonight</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteBeakedRaven/pseuds/WhiteBeakedRaven'>WhiteBeakedRaven</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>of freedom and chains [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Administrator Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Angst, Clay | Dream Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Sapnap-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Summoning</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:56:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,692</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29804421</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteBeakedRaven/pseuds/WhiteBeakedRaven</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sapnap knows exactly what he encountered. His former best friend is still walking around, despite the blood that paints his hands.<br/>And he knows what he's going to do about it.<br/>A little summoning has never hurt anyone. Right?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clay | Dream &amp; GeorgeNotFound &amp; Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream &amp; GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream &amp; Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), GeorgeNotFound &amp; Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>of freedom and chains [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2171616</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>470</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Interconnected Dreams</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Summoning the devil tonight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Part five, yay!</p><p>Thanks a whole lot for all the awesome comments and the tons of support, you guys are the best!<br/>As usual, thanks for izzine on ao3/ @isaamsmrts on Tumblr, for supporting me and listening to my random rambles. She's the best!</p><p>Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There was another ghost on the SMP.</p><p>Sapnap had met him. Kinda. Half-conscious. A bit delirious.</p><p>But still he was certain. Another ghost had joined their ranks.</p><p>How else could Sapnap explain meeting the man he had killed with his own two hands for the final time. Who he had spilled his blood on that terrible clearing. Who he had kept his promise to.</p><p>Sapnap might have been put through the wringer in that Nether Fortress, but the evidence spoke to the fact that he had really met him there.</p><p>For one, the ravenette hadn’t been where he had lost consciousness when he had woken up. He had also, at some point been fed milk and maybe a golden apple? And his headwound had been bandaged with a piece of moss, something you would certainly not find growing normally in the heat of the Nether.</p><p>A piece of moss.</p><p>One small piece of moss, used as a wound patch.</p><p>Moss, of all things!</p><p>Who else would come up with an idea like that. Dream had always had the tangent to collect random things that had seemed pointless, like certain vegetation or trinkets, for which George and him had always made fun of. Only to stop laughing as soon as his little habit and the collection he had assembled, came in clutch.</p><p>There also had been other clues, such as hastily made barricades and a dug out stairway, missing treasures and bones upon bones of killed skeletons, that someone else had been in the same dark structure. Sapnap had checked later on with George, searching through the  entire imposing Fortress on the younger's request.</p><p>A Fortress that Eret had pointed him towards, saying they had found it while mining blackstone, leaving it untouched for later exploration. Saying that it was too far from the mainland, surely still unexplored.</p><p>The king of the Greater Dream SMP had also noted, while giving him the coords, that it would probably have done Sapnap some good to be out and about again, after shutting himself off from almost everyone. Which was probably why they had been so adamant in their discussion and pushing a piece of paper with the location to that Fortress into his hand.</p><p>Sapnap had only laughed awkwardly, explaining he had just needed some alone time after the entire prison escape fiasco.</p><p>It really had only been a few days since then.</p><p>So imagine the arsonist's surprise and inner turmoil, when the cause of his sudden isolation  had just been walking out and about, while he had been rescuing someone in distress. At least he had thought that there had been someone in distress.</p><p>He was certain he had heard someone mining. Someone who hadn’t answered his calls. Maybe because they hadn’t been able to answer? Or maybe because they hadn’t wanted to?</p><p>It was confusing.</p><p>The dozens upon dozens of wither effects Sapnap had suffered certainly hadn’t helped in his thought process.</p><p>But even despite the pain and confusion, as well as the mighty blow he had received, Sapnap remembered the last few things he saw before waking up in that small blackstone cavern, alone.</p><p>How could he forget?</p><p>He had certainly noticed with dimming thoughts, that the mobs that had previously been so adamant in killing him, had suddenly left him alone. Just walking off from their former target, leaving the arsonist to his painful end. Not a very hostile mob like behaviour, if he was being honest.</p><p>But Sapnap had had other concerns at the moment. The cold feeling of decay had eaten at his body, causing excruciating amounts of mind numbing pain, distress in every part of his being.</p><p>Until suddenly, through half cracked lids he had seen a blurry form appear out of thin air, approaching him with haste in their footfalls. As he had come closer, Sapnap had recognized him.</p><p>How couldn’t he.</p><p>The gaunt and haunted looking figure of his former best friend had approached him, lava dripping from him with every step as a glowing shower of fire, smoke curling above his head like a crown.</p><p>His face had been half-covered with an unfamiliar dark facemask, his old white smiley mask pushed to the side, revealing glowing orange and red eyes that had raked over Sapnap’s wounded body. Those hadn’t been the same eyes his friend had had, no forest green or golden brown to be found in them.</p><p>No coldness and apathy, but distress and worry shining through them.</p><p>The smiley mask had been another big part that had convinced him afterwards that this was in fact his former best friends ghost. Sapnap was fairly certain that that mask had been destroyed by Tommy in a sudden bout of panic and rage, after having taken it from their former leader in that blackstone vault, maybe a week or two ago.</p><p>George and him had been apply distressed over the destruction of such an important item.</p><p>It may have caused a bit of tension between the teen and them. Okay, maybe more than a bit, death stares and a lot of angry words had been exchanged. Them rightly furious over the destruction of a memento of past times, past memories. Good memories.</p><p>The mutual feeling of dislike had remained till this day, even with Dream's sudden death. And it probably wasn’t going to disappear anytime soon.</p><p>But back to Sapnap and his meeting with the ghost.</p><p>The last thing he remembered of this supernatural encounter, had been the too cool touch of a man long dead on his skin and dull words being spoken. Not with hate or malice, but calmingly and concerned.</p><p>Then everything had turned to black.</p><p>The next thing he had known was waking up almost completely healed in that cavern.</p><p>Alone.</p><p>Confused.</p><p>But certain of what he had seen.</p><p>His dead friend still walked these lands and the only way possible, was as a ghost. A ghost that burned in lava and still was cool to the touch. A ghost that came to a dying man’s help, even if that man had taken his last life.</p><p>Sapnap wasn’t sure how he should feel about that.</p><p>As he walked through the library he and his friends had created for Karl, rows upon rows of bookshelves towering over him, hope and fear warred within him.</p><p>Hope, that maybe, whatever had come back from Dreams disappeared body, may be more like the friend he had lost to tyranny and power. If he had the same case as amnesia as Ghostbur, that was very likely.</p><p>And fear, that maybe that wasn’t the case. That maybe what stalked these lands wasn’t a friendly spectre, but a wraith bent on destruction and revenge against those he thinks had wronged him.</p><p>A definition that Sapnap apparently didn’t fit.</p><p>How, he couldn’t really understand. Wouldn’t the ghosts in stories not go after the people first, that had killed them? Weren’t they always hell-bent on revenge?</p><p>Why save him then instead?</p><p>Why save him, when the former Dream would have certainly just left him to respawn?</p><p>Sapnap just really didn’t know.</p><p>Dream had often been hard to understand, doing things for reasons he had kept secret, sometimes pulling crazy stunts out of nowhere. He had become even more of an enigma in the months leading up to his arrest, Sapnap not able to follow even a single thought process of him. Understand a single action of him. Even now, with a lot of the information he hadn’t had before, the arsonist struggled to make sense of everything.</p><p>But maybe he could finally shed some more light on them.</p><p>Because Dream might be gone, but his ghost seemingly lingered behind. Seemingly stayed behind.</p><p>And Sapnap had just the tool to talk to him.</p><p>So, he stalked the bookshelves in the dead of night. Searching for what he had hidden. Cause, what better place to hide a book of unimaginable power, than in a library filled with books. And what bigger library existed, than the one in the Kinoko Kingdom.</p><p>Only he knew where he had put it, making it almost impossible for someone else to find it.</p><p>He came to a sudden halt in his stalking. The arsonist looked around briefly, making certain he was alone.</p><p>Then he took out the leather bound ledger on the middle shelf to the far right, opening up a way into the dark behind the countless books. He reached into the square hole, searching around in the room behind the fore edges of all the different tomes.</p><p>A perfect place to hide something.</p><p>Slowly he let his fingers wander, feeling, searching for what he knew he had hidden here.</p><p>He found…</p><p>Nothing?</p><p>Confused Sapnap retracted his hand.</p><p>Did he take the wrong shelving? Or was this the wrong shelf itself? Was he in the right aisle actually?</p><p>“Oh man…”, groaned the arsonist in the dark of the night. His memory seemingly failing him.</p><p>This was going to take a while.</p><p>-----</p><p>It took him the better part of an hour, to finally find the book he had been searching for. Safe to say, he had been getting exasperated and slightly annoyed by the end of his search.</p><p>Turned out he had actually remembered the correct positioning of his hiding spot, only he had taken it for being two aisles too soon.</p><p>Amateur mistake. It wouldn’t happen again.</p><p>With a huff Sapnap finally held the black leatherbound tome in his hand, the one he had extracted from the underground tree room underneath the community house. A room under the lake, that had used to be Dreams. Back when that had been their home. Back when they had been less on this world.</p><p>Slightly nervous, the young man wiped the scuffed covers. They sported countless marks  from old age and use. The black leather of the book was full of scratches and roughened up parts. The spine was bent, and it was a miracle that it still held the yellowish pages of its contents in place. There was no title on the dusty front cover.</p><p>All in all the book looked ancient.</p><p>When he had first gotten his hands on it, Sapnap had been torn. For one part he had just wanted to give it to his friends and be done with it. They probably could have contacted Wilbur, maybe even brought him back in the time that had passed since Sapnap came into its possession.</p><p>Another, more insistent part however, had been firm in the belief that he should hold on to it. At least for now. Dream had entrusted it to him in his dying breath, stating directly that he should be careful with it.</p><p>Which had led Sapnap into hiding it away, thinking about what to do with it. Debating and being torn about his indecision. Not knowing how the hell he was supposed to deal with it.</p><p>Until now.</p><p>Carefully, mindful of the state the book was in, he opened it, taking his first real peak inside.</p><p>Only to be immediately thrown for a loop.</p><p>“What the hell…”, he mumbled, as he saw rows upon rows of text in a language he couldn’t understand.</p><p>It looked similar to the enchants on his weapons, but still different enough that he had no clue how to read it. There seemed to be no rhyme and reason in the thousands of letters, making it impossible to decipher.</p><p>“How am I supposed to work with this!”, escaped him angrily, a feeling of loss overtaking him.</p><p>“Work with what?”, came suddenly out of the dark.</p><p>Sapnap flinched with his whole body, a very manly shriek escaping him. He loudly snapped the book shut, as he abruptly realized he wasn’t alone and he tried to hide it behind his back from his sudden company.</p><p>“Nothing!”, he answered, playing at an innocent tone.</p><p>A snort came out of the black around him. “You’ve never been a great liar, Sappitus nappitus...” The abrupt light of a torch blinded the arsonist, revealing the dishevelled figure of George holding it, after blinking the spots away. “Now, mind telling me what you were actually doing here?”</p><p>“Nothing important! Just go back to sleep, Gogy”, Sapnap bit annoyed back.</p><p>Despite what had happened a bit more than a week ago and the aftermath of the younger coming to the older for comfort, Sapnap wouldn’t budge.</p><p>He might have cried on George's shoulder, the blood of their former best friend still splattered all over him. He might have spent the night with the older man, both intermittently laughing and crying about old memories. He might have asked him after his meeting with the ghostly Dream, to check out the Nether Fortress with him again. He might have clung to him, as the only remaining part of the Dream Team.</p><p>But that didn’t mean he had to get involved now.</p><p>This was Sapnaps job, his responsibility to investigate. Not Georges or Karls or Quackitys or anyone else’s.</p><p>This was his burden for taking his former best friend's life.</p><p>The two friends stared at each other in the flickering torchlight, one with a raised eyebrow above his signature clout goggles, the other with a defiant stance and his arms behind his back. He wouldn’t budge. They both knew they were stubborn enough to extend this stalemate for a while.</p><p>Luckily, it didn’t come to that. Or unluckily, depending on one’s point of view.</p><p>With a quiet but hearable rustle, several papers floated down to the floor behind Sapnap. Both members of the Dream Team, Sapnap twisting his body to look behind him, watched slightly perplexed at it happening.</p><p>The slightly yellow papers reached the floor of the library with nought a sound.</p><p>Quickly, Sapnap brought the book back into his line of sight, seeing several loose papers still clinging on between the pages by a hair, the rest having shifted out of them by the sudden movement and him not completely closing the book.</p><p>Another paper lost its grip, flying down to join its brethren on the floor. Its lazy floating being watched by two pairs of eyes.</p><p>A sudden burst of action, came into the two friends.</p><p>The arsonist dropped to the ground, exclaiming: “No, no, no!”, as he attempted to gather them all, as quickly as possible. George also approached and took part in the mess.</p><p>Sapnap wasn’t fast enough.</p><p>He gathered all he could find, movements hasty and slightly panicky. As soon as the floor was freed from all the incriminating evidence, he tilted his head back up, only to see George holding one or two papers, reading them quietly for himself.</p><p>“Give those back!”, the younger shouted.</p><p>George ignored him and continued reading.</p><p>“I said, give those back!” The aggravated arsonist attempted to lunge at his friend, only to miss, as the older quickly dodged to the side while not putting down the papers.</p><p>Before Sapnap could attempt again, George with a clear voice read out loud: “This process, while sounding like a fucking fairy tale, seems to actually be able to bring people back, no matter how lost their souls have become in the world…?”<br/>
He stopped reciting and stared at the younger through the black tinted glasses. “This doesn’t seem like your average writing, Sapnap. Where did you get it from?”</p><p>Surprise was palpable on the younger's face. “You can read it?”</p><p>“Why shouldn’t I be able to read it? It’s just plain English.”</p><p>“What?” Quickly, Sapnap checked his own collected papers. And it was true, written on these loose sheets were scrawled handwritten letters. Readable, curving letters in English. No undecipherable mess of symbols and words in a language he could never hope to understand.<br/>
“What the fuck…”, he further scanned the pages he had picked up. They were messily written, in an unfamiliar handwriting, stains colouring the slightly yellowish paper. Also, there were small numbers written at the bottom, going into the twentys as far as he could see.</p><p>Page numbers?</p><p>“I’m gonna ask again. What is this?”, George questioned, fanning the few pages he had through the air.</p><p>Now, to say Sapnap was slightly conflicted, was an understatement. He was meant to take care of the book and the first chance he had had, he messed up.</p><p>On the other hand, George was another person who Dreams death seemed to have hit hard. He might not show it, keeping his calm and apathetic façade up, but they hadn’t been friends for years, only for Sapnap to not see that he wasn’t grieving as well.</p><p>The quiet trembles in his movements and the slightly redder eyes, whenever he lifted his glasses, gave him away. Contributing was the fact that George had left his home even less than before, taking no part in any of their friends’ activities, except the time Sapnap had asked him to come with him to the Nether.</p><p>They both had tried to process their grief mostly away from others, alone.</p><p>Sapnap could understand why, after all the not so completely honest platitudes their friends had given him for Dream's death. No matter how changed the mask wearing man had been, that had once been his best friend. Which meant that all the condolences, tinted with relief and sometimes glee at the others death, had just rubbed him very wrong.</p><p>Don’t get him started on the praise he had received for his deed.</p><p>Maybe doing this would give George some closure as well? Maybe it would not only help Sapnap, but the older too, with sorting out their messy feelings?</p><p>The arsonist deliberated for a moment. He made up his mind quickly.</p><p>There was only one way to find out, how George would react.</p><p>He sighed loudly, causing the goggled man to stop fanning himself with the papers. “Remember when I told you that the only reason Dream had still been alive in prison was because of a book?”, he started.</p><p>Even behind the goggles he could see George's eyes widen. “You mean the book that can bring back the dead? That book?” The older let his arms fall to his side, still clutching the papers, as a realization struck him.</p><p>“Why do you have it?”, he asked, voice quieter than before.</p><p>“Dream told me where he had hidden it, as I- as he…” A familiar feeling began clogging the arsonists throat. “You know… as he left…went away…”, he stuttered out.</p><p>“You mean when he died in your arms.” The statement wasn’t said in a harsh tone, but it still struck something deeply in the younger. At least it wasn’t said with any kind of positive inflection, like the rest of the SMP might.</p><p>Sapnap only answered with a nod, eyes locked onto the floor. His throat felt stiff and wrong, which is why he didn’t trust his voice at the moment. Clutching the old damaged leather tome to his chest, shoulders sunken down.</p><p>But he had to go on in his explanation. Getting a deep breath, trying to get rid of the feeling in his throat, he spoke weakly: “Dream-Dream said I should take care of it. Also-And that we might not be able to use it. Like completely. But enough to at least- at least talk to the dead…”</p><p>He should be over it. It had been a bit more than a week. He shouldn’t be struggling to push out one sentence.</p><p>Still, only seeing the wooden floor of the library, Sapnap kept stopping and breaking his sentences. He couldn’t help it. He gave up continuing his words, as he heard steps close in. His friends feet coming into his down tilted view.</p><p>A comforting hand landed on his shoulder.</p><p>Sapnap risked a glance up, finding that George had pushed his goggles up on his head, allowing him to see a pair of eyes, one brown and one blue, that shined in understanding and sympathy.</p><p>“You want to talk to him”, George said softly. Sapnap could only give another small nod.<br/>
“Why now and not immediately after he…?”, the older trailed off questioningly.</p><p>Sapnap took a deep breath. He had just wanted to leave the subject of Dream alone, after he had killed him. It hurt too much. Like something intricate was suddenly missing, forever, even though they had already lost him so long ago.</p><p>Even if he had had the book and with it the power, he just hadn’t wanted, couldn’t have wanted to see him again.</p><p>Not after that fateful fight in that now crimson stained clearing. Not after he had wiped away Sapnaps tears with a softness that had been missing for so long from his old friend. Not after Dream had whispered to him the secret that had originally prolonged his life for several months and given him a long stay in his own prison. Not after the last picture of Dream in his mind had been of a moveless still body, with blood gushing out of its mouth and chest. His glowing sword stuck in the torso. His hands bathed in crimson.</p><p>Before the dead blond had disappeared into the void for the final time.</p><p>Sapnap just wouldn’t have been able to take it, talking to him so soon after he had been brought to his final resting place. By the arsonist's hand. He couldn’t have, it would have been wrong and probably taken a smash hammer to his already grief clogged mental state.</p><p>Only to have that conviction shattered, not even a day or two ago.</p><p>“Remember that Fortress I dragged you to?”, he tried to explain.</p><p>George snorted. “Of course, it had been a pain getting there and back in one piece.”</p><p>Sapnap fidgeted with his fingers. Looking away from George, he said: “Well, I saw him there. He helped me.” </p><p>A questioning noise left George's lips, mouth opened slightly in surprise. “How? You saw him? What? You mean as in… as in his ghost?”<br/>
The hand, which had been a comforting weight on Sapnaps left shoulder, was removed to be run through George's brown hair and gripping the strands tightly. “Tell me you’re joking. You’ve got to be joking!”, disbelief heavy in his tone.</p><p>“I’m not joking. I know what I saw.”, the younger stated firmly. “He was there all fiery and shit. He saved me from being torn to shreds.”</p><p>George's eyes flickered around in Sapnaps face. Searching, trying to find the hidden joke. The hidden message. Finding none. Only beholding a level of seriousness rare to be seen in the younger.</p><p>“Okay, okay. I believe you.” A slight chuckle escaped him. “Of course he would come back. He is certainly stubborn enough to not stay dead.”</p><p>“Yeah”, Sapnap agreed lowly. He remembered how tired Dream had seemed in his final moments, almost none of the usual determination and stubbornness to be seen, but a quiet flicker that had sparked from time to time.</p><p>A sudden new light came into George's heterochromatic eyes. Sapnap noticed the change immediately. It reminded him of his own eyes in the mirror this morning.</p><p>With a new drive in place, the older went on: “So, what’s the plan? Check out the book and summon us our Dream back? For a quick chat?”</p><p>Sapnap nodded. “Yeah, exactly. Just for a quick talk”, he spoke softly.</p><p>A slight grin began to spread over George's lips. “Then let’s go!”</p><p>Sapnap mirrored it, heart somewhat lighter than before. Maybe it was because he wasn’t going to have to do it alone now. Maybe because he might see his old friend again. Or maybe because they were finally going to have that talk they deserved, after all that had happened.</p><p>-----</p><p>It turned out, the book itself was still unreadable. Completely ineligible. Useless in the grand scheme of things.</p><p>The loose pages, however, were a gold mine.</p><p>As the two soon discovered, they were fragmented attempts at deciphering the book, being written in a slightly foul language, but covered in knowledge they didn’t have access to otherwise. They were even nicely structured, annotating the pages and drawings of the book itself.</p><p>However, even the unknown author of these pages seemed to have struggled a lot with the language and writing, but they had translated enough for two things to be certain.</p><p>One, there really was a ritual, almost completely translated, that was made for allowing communication with lost souls.</p><p>Two, the book contained a method to bring people back to life, only, there was a slight problem...</p><p>“…this stupid fucking word shows up again here, and I still have no clue what it could possibly mean. Is it an object? A method? A name of something? The only thing that is certain without a doubt, is that it shows up as many times as my deranged pissass of a father has tried to kill me.<br/>
Whoever the idiot was that wrote this and wasn’t nice enough to include even a single hint as to what it is, only saying <em>something something</em> it’s connection, <em>something something</em> it’s lifeblood or <em>something something</em> always needed, I hope you’re rotting in the darkest bowels of the void for your failure of being open in your writing. This word is pissing me off so much that…”</p><p>George stopped with his out loud reading, clearing his throat noisily. “I think we can skip the next part, since the translator only goes into more detail as of what he would like to do.”</p><p>“Oh, come on George. Those parts are actually making it interesting to read”, Sapnap whined in disappointment, draped over a chair in a corner of the library the two had taken over for reading the book and its pages.</p><p>“Whatever. There isn’t anything else containing the reviving ritual”, the older continued, scanning the last few lines of text. He looked up as he finished. “Either these aren’t all the pages or Dream and Schlatt knew something we don’t on how to get this all to work.”</p><p>Sapnap hummed accordingly. “Seeing as to how paranoid they both were in the end, I don’t find that hard to believe.”</p><p>A small silence developed after that statement.</p><p>George was busy reading over the letters again, while Sapnap flipped without any real thought through the pages of the black leatherbound book. He stopped at a page which was filled with a strange design. Both of them had already inspected this one a lot.</p><p>It was a drawing of a circle, the borders filled with the same kind of symbols that were contained in the writings of the book itself, looking akin to the enchanting language. Scribble upon senseless scribble filled the design, giving Sapnap a light headache in just trying to take a closer look.</p><p>This was the summoning circle they needed to draw to contact the dead and the departed.</p><p>Luckily, the translator had managed to almost completely decipher that part of the tome, leaving behind a list of instructions to follow for it to work. Even if those instructions were sometimes speckled with exclamations of annoyance and hatred.</p><p>“Hey, do you think this will actually work?”</p><p>George lifted his head at the sudden question.<br/>
He hummed a moment in thought only to answer: “I actually do. Dream might have been nothing more than a crazy villain at the end, but he was also one of the smartest guys we know. And that is saying something with the company we keep.”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, I know Karl is crazy smart. Don’t need to tell me what for a great fiancé I chose”, Sapnap interrupted proudly, showing off the small metal band on finger.</p><p>George ignored his talk and continued. “What I’m saying is, that Dream would in no way have put so much trust in this book, if it couldn’t have actually done something. And you said that down in his hidden mountain base he had a cow named Henry? Maybe that actually was the real Henry, brought back to life?”</p><p>“You think?”, Sapnap questioned.</p><p>“I hope”, the goggles wearing man answered determinedly. “And with that hope we are going to get some answers.”</p><p>Sapnap nodded along in agreement as he stood up rapidly. Pumping his fist in the air, he shouted: “Then let’s fucking go!”</p><p>George also slowly stood up, starting to sort out the last of the papers and putting them in a pile. “You do know we are actually in a library?”, he teased. “Silence is the rule here…”</p><p>“Shut up, Gogy.”</p><p>-----</p><p>They decided to move the ritual to Dream's old base in the hillside close to Tommy's house. It took some digging to enter, the original entryway blocked with debris and a lot of confusing random iron doors.</p><p>The book and it’s translator had both been of the opinion that the highest chances of summoning a lost soul was to actually do the ritual at a location strongly linked with the target.</p><p>George and Sapnap had had a nice… discussion, whether to perform it at Dreams abandoned base or the community house.</p><p>Sapnap had been for the base, seeing as it was the closest and probably most recent, as well as longest residence of Dream. They had made many memories there, like their preparations for the first war, George getting some netherite armor and some sudden impromptu sleep-overs. Also, it was hidden, and no one would look there.</p><p>George had been for the community house, saying that the happy memories had been much more abundant in their past home. Dreams first own room was built under it and according to what he had heard from others, Dream had claimed it to have been his safe space after it had been blown up.</p><p>Only problem was that many people travelled through it, making keeping it hidden much harder. They would have needed to carve a new room under the entire structure, to keep their little ritual a secret.</p><p>At the end, comfort won over attachments, meaning the base was picked, the community house as a backup plan.</p><p>During this entire heated fight, so similar to all their past ones, neither mentioned the calming voice they expected at any moment to jump in and take a side or mitigate the fight. Neither mentioned the lacking presence they expected to show up and sooth their heated tempers. Neither mentioned how much they missed him.</p><p>Cause how could they still miss someone that had been gone for months.</p><p>The base itself was a right mess. Chests were strewn about, filled with all kinds of useless junk, the old bed was missing and there were scorch marks on the walls, looking as if some kind of explosion had happened. Part of the ceiling seemed to have even been hastily filled back in once.</p><p>It was perfect.</p><p>No one would look here for anything.</p><p>With a quiet coordination, the two members of the Dream Team began preparing for the ritual.</p><p>In general, the concept seemed quite simple. To call back a lost soul, one had to find something to which they were connected. The book seemed to have recommended enchanted items, as the translator had deciphered, throwing a few of his own comments in, complaining about how hard it was for normal people to get enchanted items and that capitalism was the ruin of every society.</p><p>Moving on.</p><p>The magic a person had cast onto an enchanted item, was something they had earned from the world through their actions.</p><p>In a sense they had absorbed something of the land’s essence, it’s very own energy, into themselves and made it their own. The method of absorption could vary, from smelting some iron to killing a lot of dangerous mobs. By enchanting, someone took that accumulated power and gave it a form and purpose through carved magical words.</p><p>The transfer itself, from person to object, was accomplished by using the magically very conductive mineral of lapis lazuli, that was burned up during the process. The more power was transferred, the stronger the enchantments, the more lapis lazuli was needed.</p><p>But the fact remained, that that power had come from the person, building a slight connection to the object that could even remain after the death of the caster.</p><p>The ritual in essence strengthened that thin thread of past magic, allowing it to be a way to pull the lost soul to the location of the ritual. The circle also functioned in a second way, by strengthening the dead soul, allowing better communication as long as it was in it.</p><p>The location itself could make the ritual easier, by also having a connection with the target, since the land also partially reabsorbed some of its power, when you walked on it. But that took way longer than the way people earned it in the first place, meaning that to have a connection, a longer stay was needed.</p><p>Or when a person died, releasing all of their collected essence back into the world at once.</p><p>George and Sapnap hadn’t even verbally brought up the possibility of going to Dream's last location before death. Both immediately ignoring the option of going to that fateful clearing.</p><p>Or the prison cell and the mountain base.</p><p>Carefully, they carved the circle and the hundreds of symbols into the dusty wooden floorboards. Taking extra care in exactly copying it, double and triple checking, before also taking a very close look at the work of the other.</p><p>They weren’t allowed to mess up, otherwise it wouldn’t work.</p><p>Then they took out a stack of lapis lazuli.</p><p>To strengthen the bond and the soul, they had to give it their own innate magic, meaning they needed the conductor to transfer it. Some of the blue minerals they pushed into the just made carvings, filling them with blue, the rest they kept in hand for later.</p><p>Before setting up this ritual while they had had their nice… discussion, they had spent a few hours at the spider spawners, absorbing as much EXP, as much of the world’s essence, as possible within the short time period.</p><p>Thanks to their communicators they knew they had collected quite a lot, as shown in their levels.</p><p>It would hopefully be enough.</p><p>And last but not least was the object, the focus of this entire summoning ritual, the thing that would pull Dreams soul back to them . Something enchanted by Dream himself.</p><p>Carefully, Sapnap laid the throwing trident named Nightmare inside the bounds of the circle. Its glowing enchantments flashed purple magic every now and then over the blue material.</p><p>“You think this is gonna be enough?”, Sapnap asked, doubt in his voice.</p><p>George answered immediately. “It has to be enough. Or do you want to rob Tommy or break into Snowchester to get other Nightmares?”</p><p>“Nah bro. We could just tell the entire SMP what we’re trying to do here then .” A brief thought went through Sapnaps head. “Since when has Dream actually named everything Nightmare? He had other names in the past.”</p><p>“Hmm, not sure” George slowly got into position, lapis in hand. “Hopefully we can just ask him soon.”</p><p>Sapnap mirrored him at the other side of the circle. “Yeah, hopefully”, he mumbled.</p><p>Tension was palpable in the air, as they both slowly sat down opposite of each other, the three-block diameter of the summoning circle between them. Their hands were already stained blue because of the mineral, as they carefully touched the outer ring of their carvings.</p><p>They both gasped in unison, as the familiar feeling of enchantment fell over them.</p><p>The slow tingling of energy leaving their bodies, finding purpose outside of them, leaving behind a faint exhaustion. But instead of the familiar pulses of energy taken, this was a slow flow out of their skin, through the blue lapis in their hands and on the circle, into the runes and symbols.</p><p>Slowly, they began to glow.</p><p>Hope and giddiness spread between the two, mirroring each other with disbelieving smiles on their faces, when they looked up at each other. Even if the goggles wearing one was more of a hint of lifted lips and the arsonists was edging more into full out grin territory.</p><p>George kept a careful eye on the communicator on his wrist, seeing the slow decline of his levels happening, as the circle and its carvings began to flash purple. That’s why he noticed immediately, when the circle had stopped the absorption of more energy.</p><p>Sapnap noticed as well, but only because of the sudden ebb of the tingling in his body's core and arms.</p><p>Concerned the friends glanced at each other, smiles gone in place of worry.</p><p>Sapnap asked first: “Why isn’t it working?”</p><p>George glanced back to his communicator, then down to the clearly glowing circle. “I don’t know. It seems to have worked fine until now.”</p><p>“Could something be stopping the summoning?”</p><p>The older shook his head. “No matter where the soul, if it’s loose, it can be summoned. That’s what the texts said.”</p><p>“But why isn’t Dreams soul loos-“ A loud gasp came from the ravenette. “Look at that!”, he shouted, pointing towards the middle, one blue hand still on the runes.</p><p>George immediately saw what he meant. There, in the middle of the circle, originating from the shining trident, was a translucent shimmering thread that disappeared into nothing shortly after leaving the carvings.</p><p>George reached out to it with a blue stained hand. Surprisingly, he could actually touch the seemingly immaterial construct. It felt soft and warm under his skin, but still held strong when he experimentally tugged on it.</p><p>Taking a tighter hold of the thread, he pulled at it, trying to get whatever it was connected to into the circle. It pulled taut, only to suddenly slacken and disappear from sight.</p><p>A sudden shock went through the both of them, as abruptly the pull of magic started up again, taking level after level from their limited reserves. Now it wasn’t a calm tingling anymore, but a paralysing electric torrent.</p><p>It hurt. Painfully so.</p><p>But both of them gritted their teeth against the feeling, as they saw the shape of a figure take form in the middle of their circle. Both of them went on, despite losing the feeling in their fingers and arm, as hope blossomed at the sight.</p><p>It was translucent and only vaguely defined, all colour washed from it. If you took it into a desert, it would look like an actual mirage. But despite the blurry quality of the soul they had summoned, the stark white mask with the smiley face on it, that had been destroyed not long ago, gave it away.</p><p>“Dream?!”, “DREAM!”, they both shouted, in hope and pain.</p><p>A sound, akin to flowing water, gurgled as an answer. Both of them were just about to call out again, when the sound seemed to change. It became less of a natural sound and more and more like the overlapping sentences of voices, whispering chaotically in the background.</p><p>
  <em>...Sapnap?... George?... </em>A voice called oh so faintly back. It was louder in comparison to the hissing and whizzing of the whispers, echoing ever so slightly. The shadowy figure of the missing part of the Dream Team seemed to look around, confused.<br/>
<em>...What…doing.?! …connection…. weak!... </em>came broken as snippets through the air.
</p><p>“Dream what are you saying?”, George gasped out, sweat pouring down his face.</p><p>A quiet whimper came from Sapnap, as suddenly the circle demanded even more energy, taking even the last of his levels. George was close behind, his energy completely drained.</p><p>But the circle didn’t stop taking.</p><p>The previous pain seemed almost nothing in comparison to the burning feeling filling them now. The agony was apparent on their faces.</p><p>The slightly visible spectre of Dream seemed to get agitated, moving his wispy arms quickly, shouting-whispering: <em>…stop..HURT!!...Danger!...</em></p><p>“Dream stay! We have to talk!”, Sapnap desperately coughed out, his trembling form ash-pale. He felt the connection they had built with so much effort, weakening.</p><p>George looked much the same, also having some slow-dripping blood leak from his nose, starting to cough because of a sudden lack of air in his lungs.</p><p>The mirage of Dream seemed to see it, freezing for a moment. Indecision and conflict apparent in his figure. It abruptly turned into determination. Then he moved his arm in a sudden slashing movement.</p><p>A blinding light filled the hidden base, causing both real occupants to close their eyes. The sound of something glass-like breaking echoing around.</p><p>When they had finally blinked away the black and white spots, they were met with the charred black remains of their circle, a trident, seemingly without enchantments, lying in the middle.</p><p>The two friends were gasping for air, feeling drained beyond everything they had ever experienced, laying on their backs on the dusty wooden floor. Adrenaline and sweat, from the pain and experience they just had, flowing over.</p><p>It was Sapnap who was the first to move, reaching with a trembling hand for the trident.</p><p>Upon touch a brief flicker of purple coated it again, showing the enchantments to be still intact, just drained of all their energy. With a lot of effort he pulled the weapon back to his body, storing it in his inventory for later.</p><p>Then he grinned over to the older. “It-it worked!”, he whispered with a scratchy voice.</p><p>George grinned exhilarated despite the lingering discomfort back.</p><p>“Next time, we will-we'll just need to be better prepared…”</p><p>-----</p><p>A long way away from the mainland, a trembling blond figure shot up in bed, gasping for breath.</p><p>“What the fuck! What the fuck!”, he whispered, short on air.</p><p>Briefly, his mind speedran through what had happened, trying to catch up despite his splitting headache.</p><p>After the entire Nether fiasco, he had ridden out the worst of his attack and sickness in his hole. That had taken hours, maybe days in itself.</p><p>He had then taken his trip back, returning slowly and painfully, clawing himself chunk by chunk until his portal. A supposed five-hour trip had extended to more than double.</p><p>After making his way back to his base, he had fallen into bed, intent on waiting out his fever and nausea here. Waiting until he had somewhat recovered from overextending himself. Sleep, of course, evading him as per usual.</p><p>Until a slow tugging picked at his delirious mind. He had thought it to be unconsciousness. He had given in, letting it take him. And taken it had, somewhere far away from himself. Far away from his actual body.</p><p>The sensation had faintly reminded him of when he stretched his senses into the world, only this time, he hadn’t been in control of where they had been taken. Dream hadn’t had the time to panic over the fact, as his surroundings had suddenly materialised.</p><p>He had been met by the blurry vision of a room, familiar from a long time back and two people, two very important people. Their calls had echoed in his aching mind and he had tried calling back, had tried warning them. Had tried to stop them. He had dimly registered what the hell had been going on.</p><p>A connection, a chain had kept his taken mind there, keeping him there and feeding him energy, in an effort to keep his spectral form now visible, stable. He hadn’t liked it. He hadn’t liked at all the amount of energy he had been receiving, instinctively knowing its sources.</p><p>A small attempt of himself, to move from the summoning circle, had suddenly increased the energy in keeping him in check. Taking even more. Dream had known what that meant for his friends.</p><p>Feeling rather than seeing their sudden pain through his blurry vision, he had been forced to take things into his own hands. Taking the scraps of what he had recovered in his energy, he used it to cut the connections keeping him there in one fell swoop.</p><p>Stopping the burden that had been on his two best friends, as well as freeing himself of the magical chains calling and binding him.</p><p>And now he was back in his aching body, taking a moment to come back to his senses. Sitting up and breathing over the side of his bed.</p><p>They had summoned him, summoned him…</p><p>Those idiots,<b><em> Idiots,</em> IDIOTS!</b></p><p>They were going to kill themselves summoning a still living breathing soul. They would have died, hadn’t it been him they had summoned. Hadn’t he been the Admin who was familiar with such magics. Who could control them. Break them. Stop them.</p><p>He ignored the part that whispered to him that the only reason the ritual had gone so far, was because he was the Admin. His essence easier to connect and disconnect from his body and the world around him.</p><p>They still had literally tried to summon a living soul! A soul still strongly connected to a breathing body!</p><p>Through the anger at their idiocy, another thought cut through.</p><p>But they had tried, since they thought he was dead…</p><p>They had gone through all that effort. All that pain. To summon him…</p><p>Him of all people!</p><p>Just him.</p><p>To talk...</p><p>They had wanted to talk to him.</p><p>Dream saw through his blurring vision water drops falling to the stone ground. He ignored his itching nose and the hopeful happiness-fear, blooming slowly in his mind. He didn’t have any time to pay it attention.</p><p>Breathing deeply once, he came to a decision.</p><p>He couldn’t linger and wait his body out, to get back into a stable condition. He didn’t have the time. He had to get further in his steps. He had to get an ender chest. Which meant he still had to get an ender pearl. The rest of the materials he had already collected.</p><p>Pushing his aching, feverish body up, Dream stood swaying on his trembling feet. He didn’t have time to rest. He really didn’t.</p><p>Wiping his still flowing tears, the Admin began gearing up. Endermen could be a pain to kill, if you weren’t prepared enough.</p><p>Intent on getting the last material despite his condition, he stumbled slowly out of his save base into the night filled with dangerous mobs.</p><p>He had to be faster, for the sake of his friends.</p><p>
  <em>...they wanted him still...</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Gonna be honest, don't really know how to feel about this installation. I enjoyed writing it though!</p><p>As already said before, every part of this series until now has been me trying something new, so please tell me what you think in the comments down below.<br/>Constructive criticism is also welcome.</p><p>The next part is in the works and has already gotten quite long. Probably gonna split it up in chapters for easier reading and writing. But it's gonna be a nice drabble :)</p><p>As always, hope you enjoyed and I wish you all a great day/night!<br/>Stay safe!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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